UPDATE 2-Kenyan forces, al Shabaab rebels clash on border

ISIOLO, Kenya, July 20 (Reuters) - Kenyan security forces
clashed along the border on Tuesday with gunmen from the Somali
rebel group that was behind deadly suicide bombings in Uganda
this month, an official and residents said.

Both Kenya and Somalia's al Shabaab militia were reported to
be sending reinforcements to the area, although similar border
skirmishes in the past have not escalated into wider fighting.

Wilson Murungi, commissioner of the Kenyan border district
of Lagdera, said al Shabaab gunmen ambushed a Kenyan border
patrol and wounded one officer. He said a team had been sent to
beef up security and investigate the incident.

"The attack was not a raid inside (Kenya). Our officers were
attacked as they conducted a normal patrol. The militias fired
at them on the other side of the border," Murungi told Reuters.

Residents near the Liboi border post in Kenya said there was
a fierce exchange of fire between the two sides.

Al Shabaab, a hardline rebel group with links to al Qaeda,
controls much of southern Somalia bordering northeastern Kenya
and is fighting to topple the Western-backed government in the
Horn of Africa nation.

Al Shabaab is regarded as a patchwork of networks including
foreigners who favour al Qaeda-style global attacks as well as
more nationalistic Somalis who want to impose their own harsh
version of Islamic sharia law at home.

CALL TO JIHAD

The Uganda bombings were the first al Shabaab strike outside
Somalia, although there have been fears for some time in Kenya
that the violence could spill over the long and porous border
between the two countries.

Washington, which supports the Somali government and an
African Union peacekeeping force in the capital Mogadishu, is
keen to prevent senior foreign militants within al Shabaab from
promoting an al Qaeda-type approach among middle tier fighters.

A clan elder in the Somali town of Dhobley on the other side
of the frontier told Reuters that two dead al Shabaab fighters
were brought there and buried on Tuesday.

"Here in Dhobley, al Shabaab are calling people to jihad
against Kenya and deploying more militias to the border. Local
people fear new fighting between the two sides," said elder
Yusuf Ali Mohamed.

Kenya tightened security along its border with Somalia in
February in anticipation of a government offensive which has yet
to materialise. There were fears that Somali rebels might try
and enter Kenya if attacked at home.

Kenya has twice been hit by al-Qaeda linked attacks and
while it cannot take part in the African Union peacekeeping in
Somalia because it is a neighbour, the government has pledged to
do what it can to prevent the chaos next door spreading.
(Additional reporting by Sahra Abdi and Humphrey Malalo in
Nairobi; Editing by David Clarke and Jon Hemming)